The FBI released the below information yesterday:
In a coordinated international takedown, law enforcement officials in
Romania, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and Canada, acting on
provisional arrest requests made by the United States, arrested Romanian
nationals Emil Butoi, Aurel Cojocaru, Nicolae Ghebosila, Cristea Mircea, Ion
Pieptea, and Nicolae Simion. Another defendant, Albanian national Fabian Meme,
is already incarcerated in the Czech Republic. The U.S. arrest warrants,
unsealed today, were issued in the Eastern District of New York based on a
federal complaint alleging the defendants’ involvement in a sophisticated
multi-million-dollar cyber fraud scheme that targeted consumers on U.S.-based
Internet marketplace websites. The government will seek the defendants’
extradition to the United States pursuant to the relevant international
treaties.
The charges and arrests were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Lanny A. Breuer, Assistant
Attorney General of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice; and
George Venizelos, Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
New York Field Office.
As alleged in the complaint, the defendants were responsible for saturating
Internet marketplace websites, such as eBay.com, Cars.com, AutoTrader.com, and
CycleTrader.com, with detailed advertisements for cars, motorcycles, boats, and
other high-value items generally priced in the $10,000 to $45,000 range.
Unbeknownst to the buyers, however, the merchandise did not exist. The so-called
sellers, who worked for the defendants, corresponded with the victim buyers by
e-mail, sending fraudulent certificates of title and other information designed
to lure the victims into parting with their money. Sometimes, they pretended to
sell cars from non-existent auto dealerships in the United States and even
created phony websites for these fictitious dealerships. In at least one
transaction, involving defendant Ghebosila, the purported “seller” pretended to
be the widow of an Iraq war veteran who was selling her family’s mobile home so
that she could care for her children. In other transactions, the defendants
duped victims into sending tens of thousands of dollars for non-existent
vehicles, including Lexus, Audi, Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Toyota, Mercedes,
Porsche, and BMW cars; Big Dog Mastiff and Ninja motorcycles; a Fleetwood Storm
motor home; and boats.
As part of the scheme alleged in the complaint, defendants Cojocaru, Meme,
Butoi, and others produced high-quality fake passports so that foreign national
co-conspirators in the United States, known as “arrows,” could use the passports
as identification to open American bank accounts. As alleged in the complaint,
Cojocaru was recorded on video during the investigation displaying new holograms
that he was using to create more authentic-looking passports.
As alleged in the complaint, after the fake “sellers” reached an agreement
with the victim buyers, they would often e-mail them invoices purporting to be
from Amazon Payments, PayPal, or other online payment services, with wire
transfer instructions. However, these invoices were also fraudulent—the
defendants and their co-conspirators used counterfeit service marks in designing
the invoices so that they would appear identical to communications from
legitimate payment services. The fraudulent invoices directed the buyers to send
money to the American bank accounts that had been opened by the “arrows.”
Finally, the “arrows” would collect the illicit proceeds and send them to the
defendants in Europe by wire transfer and other methods. For example, the
“arrows” forwarded defendant Pieptea $18,000 cash in fraud proceeds hidden
inside hollowed-out audio speakers. Other “arrows” used the proceeds to purchase
expensive Audemars Piguet watches and then sent the watches to the defendants
abroad.
According to the complaint, it is estimated that the defendants earned over
$3 million from the fraudulent scheme.
Each defendant is charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering
conspiracy, and defendants Butoi, Cojocaru, Meme, Mircea, Pieptea, and Simion
are also charged with passport fraud conspiracy. If convicted, the defendants
each face a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of the wire fraud
conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy counts and 10 years’ imprisonment on
the passport fraud conspiracy count.
“As alleged, the defendants ran a sophisticated fraud scheme that used the
Internet to reach across the globe and into the homes of unsuspecting Americans.
They utilized high-tech counterfeiting techniques to create an aura of online
legitimacy. This virtual con game nevertheless cost Americans real money. Thanks
to our international partnerships, even the most sophisticated and tech-savvy
criminal organizations are not beyond the reach of law enforcement. No matter
how complex the scheme, we will spare no effort in protecting American consumers
from fraud on the Internet,” stated United States Attorney Lynch.
“As a result of extensive cooperation between U.S. and European law
enforcement officials, the defendants have been charged with a scheme to defraud
unsuspecting Americans of millions of dollars,” said Assistant Attorney General
Breuer. “The Department of Justice is committed to finding and prosecuting
Internet fraud aggressively, wherever it happens and however hard the
perpetrators work to conceal their crimes.”
FBI Assistant Director in Charge Venizelos stated, “The FBI is committed to
protecting the American public from predatory conduct whether it originates here
or abroad. The international nature of many organized crime groups makes it
essential for us to work with our partners here and overseas—as we did in this
investigation—to rein in the alleged criminals.”
The offices of the FBI Legal Attachés in Romania, the Czech Republic, the
United Kingdom, Canada, and Hungary were instrumental in coordinating efforts
with the United States’ international partners, and the Department of Justice’s
Office of International Affairs worked with its counterparts in these countries
to effect the provisional arrests and requests for mutual legal assistance,
including the forfeiture of the illegal proceeds of these crimes. The Department
of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section also provided
assistance with the forfeitures.
The U.S. government thanks the Romanian government, particularly the Ministry
of Justice, the Romanian Internal Intelligence Service, and the Directorate for
Combating Organized Crime, for their collaborative efforts throughout this
long-term investigation, and also thanks the Czech National Police, Hungarian
National Bureau of Investigation, Metropolitan Police Service in England,
Montreal Police Service, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, International Organized
Crime Intelligence and Operations Center (IOC2), Internet Crime Complaint Center
(IC3), Costa Mesa Police Department, Orange County District Attorney’s Office,
and the New York City Police Department for their assistance.
The government’s case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States
Attorneys Cristina Posa, Vamshi Reddy, and Claire Kedeshian, and Trial Attorney
Carol Sipperly of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crimes and Intellectual
Property Section.
The charges in the complaint are merely allegations, and the defendants are
presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Defendants
Emil Butoi
Age: 34
Romanian
Aurel Cojocaru
Age: 43
Romanian
Nicolae Ghebosila
Age: 43
Romanian
Fabian Meme
Age: 42
Albanian
Cristea Mircea
Age: 30
Romanian
Ion Pieptea
Age: 36
Romanian
Nicolae Simion
Age: 37
Romanian
